It would be hard not to be moved by the deputations and comments about the problems the quarrying, shipping and storage activities at Picton Terminals are causing residents and important institutions such as the Picton Golf Club that are located near it.
Council received 17 comments and deputations, some of them telling harrowing stories about the illegal operations of this facility. All were opposed to the County’s decision to sign a settlement agreement with Picton Terminals rather than enforce the bylaws it is obliged to enforce.
Difficulties in breathing, houses that have lost or are losing market value, great difficulties in sleeping properly, the need to constantly clean houses and air filters caused by airborne pollution from Picton Terminals, impairment of the structure and revenue base of a nearby historic facility, damage to the golf club – all these were described.
One commentator described the personal consequences of this in frightening detail. She invited councillors to visit a park near her house “so that you can hear, you can feel, so you can see the dust, you can breathe the crap in the air. You don’t know until you have lived it and it’s terrible. I have had lung issues, and I am scared.”
Although opinion in Council is divided, in the end the province and the municipality support the company. County has decided to pass on its regulatory responsibilities and align itself with Picton Terminals by agreeing with the proposed settlement.
If the County passes the by-law incorporating its proposed settlement, reached entirely behind closed doors, we can expect more of the same adverse effects because of the shameful past conduct of Picton Terminals at its site.
Fortunately, a straightforward solution to the problems is available. It is simply to abandon the proposed settlement and to not pass the by-law that will be placed before Council in August. Lawyers have advised Council that the company’s recent acceptance of the offer means that the County has a legally binding agreement with the company, something that is regrettably true but is only part of the story.
The other part is that there would be little or no risk or financial consequence for the County if it simply walked away from this Faustian bargain it has concluded with Picton Terminals by failing to pass the by-law it will propose.
Picton Terminals could sue for damages but if Council acted quickly on this, no court would award damages because the company would have incurred none.
It will be important for the County to act in this way to recover at last some of the credibility it has lost by its management of the Picton Terminals file over the past decade, mismanagement that has been amply documented on previous occasions.
People depend on governments to protect them from the harms previously cited and to ensure safe drinking water. Council has failed in both
Failure to act decisively now would only contribute to the widespread loss of confidence in governments that is all too evident in the times in which we live.
David Mackinnon, Picton
An Open Letter to the County:
I get it, there was a lot of “too much, too soon” going on. But times are again changing quickly, and we need to catch up to where we are now.
When you put the brakes on accommodation, you put the brakes on business development. Without accommodation growth you cap visitor growth. When you fined tourists $400 for parking, that’s $400 that couldn’t support local businesses — other than the security company hired to issue the tickets.
When you complain about tourists publicly in Council meetings and that is reported in the press, be sure that those tourists are reading those articles and hearing they are not welcome here.
Without a sensible, strategic plan for growth and a welcoming, supportive attitude towards those entrepreneurs, business owners and families who came to build a new life (as you beckoned), the County will whither its vines.
“Too much, too soon” will quickly become “too little, too late” without a realignment to the reality that the County is truly not much different from countless communities in Canada that have moved through the boom and bust of the past 10 years.
A thoughtful, continuous, sensible approach to supporting community growth while remaining committed to work through the challenges of a tourism economy is sorely needed. High profile businesses that struggle and fold due to inaction and a lack of support will send a very different message about opportunity here — very, very far from “come build a new life.”
Dale Mugford, Picton
See it in the newspaper
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